(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to a closure for a container that is inverted and/or manually squeezed to dispense the contents of the container through an orifice of the closure. Specifically, the present invention pertains to a closure that is removably attachable to the container and comprises a dispensing orifice and a tubular valve element that is biased closed to block communication of the container with the dispensing orifice. By inverting the container so that a liquid contents of the container exerts pressure on the exterior surface of the valve element, or by squeezing the container causing the liquid contents to exert pressure on the exterior surface of the valve element, the valve element opens and allows the liquid contents to be dispensed from the container. On removing the pressure from the valve element, the valve element resiliently closes and again blocks the dispensing orifice.
(2) Description of the Related Art
Containers that are inverted and/or squeezed to dispense the liquid contents of the container are employed in dispensing a wide variety of products. Dispensers of this type are commonly used in dispensing household products, for example food condiments such as ketchup, mustard, and pancake syrup, and are also used in dispensing other products such as liquid soaps and glues. The container is typically flexible and resilient, which allows the container to be manually squeezed to exert a pressure on the contents of the container that forces a portion of the contents through a dispensing orifice of the container.
In order to keep the contents of the container fresh in the case of food condiments, or to keep the contents from drying out in the case of soap or glue, the container dispensing orifice is often provided with a closure. A simple example of a prior art closure is a cap that is screw threaded on a threaded neck of the container. Another example is a cap that is snapped onto the container covering over a dispensing spout. Each of these basic types of prior art closures are disadvantaged in that they require some manual movement of the cap to close the container dispensing orifice. When screw threading the cap on the container, it is possible to not completely screw thread the cap on the container. This could result in the cap falling off of the container, or could result in an incomplete seal of the container dispensing orifice. In a like manner, in snapping the cap on the container, it is possible for the cap to not be properly attached to the container. This also could result in the cap falling off of the container, or the cap not sealing the container dispensing orifice. In both situations, the container dispensing orifice is left unsealed, which could result in the spoiling of the container contents or the drying out of the container contents.